RANDOLPH CALDECOTT.
[Illustration: RANDOLPH CALDECOTT,
_Born 1846; Died 1886._]
RANDOLPH
CALDECOTT:
A Personal Memoir
OF HIS EARLY ART CAREER.
BY
HENRY BLACKBURN,
EDITOR OF "ACADEMY NOTES," ETC.; AUTHOR OF "BRETON FOLK,"
"ARTISTS AND ARABS," ETC.
WITH
_ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS_
NEW YORK: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS,
9, LAFAYETTE PLACE.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.
1886.
In Affectionate Remembrance.
[Illustration: DECORATIVE DESIGN BY R. CALDECOTT.]
PREFACE.
The object of this memoir is to give some information as to the early
work of Randolph Caldecott, an artist who is known to the world chiefly
by his _Picture Books_.
The extracts from letters have a personal charm apart from any literary
merit. The majority of the letters, and the sketches which accompanied
them, were sent to the author's family; others have been kindly lent
for this memoir by Mr. William Clough, Mr. Locker-Lampson, Mr.
Whittenbury, and other friends. Acknowledgments are also due to the
publishers who have lent engravings.
At the desire of Mr. Caldecott's representatives,--to whom the author
is indebted for extracts from diaries and other material--the
consideration of his later work is reserved for a future time.
Although the text of this book is little more than a setting for the
illustrations, it is hoped that the material collected may be found
interesting.
H. B.
103, VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER,
_September 1886_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAP. I.--HIS EARLY ART CAREER 1
II.--DRAWING FOR "LONDON SOCIETY" 13
III.--IN LONDON, THE HARZ MOUNTAINS, ETC. 29
IV.--DRAWING FOR "THE DAILY GRAPHIC" 51
V.--DRAWING FOR "THE PICTORIAL WORLD" 67
VI.--AT FARNHAM ROYAL, BUCKS 90
VII.--"OLD CHRISTMAS" 100
VIII.--LETTERS, DIAGRAMS, ETC. 117
IX.--ROYAL ACADEMY, "BRACEBRIDGE HALL," ETC. 134
X.--ON THE RIVIERA 148
XI.--"BRETON FOLK," ETC. 165
XII.--AT MENTONE, ETC. 190
XIII.--CONCLUSION 203
APPENDIX 211
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
_The unpublished illustrations are marked with an asterisk_ *
PAGE
PORTRAIT _Frontispiece_
*DECORATIVE DESIGN BY R. CALDECOTT vii
*TAILPIECE xvi
*AIR--"I KNOW A BANK" 1
*FIRST CLERK--SECOND DO. 2
*COOM, THEN 3
*THREE FRIENDS 4
*GOING TO THE DOGS 5
*A SKETCH IN COURT 7
*FULL CRY 8
*IN THE HUNTING FIELD 9
*STREET SKETCH--POLICEMAN, ETC. 10
*SOCIETY IN MANCHESTER 11
*A NEW CONTRIBUTOR (_London Society_) 13
EDUCATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES 14
YE MONTHE OF APRILE 15
SKETCH IN HYDE PARK 16
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 17
*THE TROMBONE 18
THE TWO TROMBONES 19
CHRISTMAS DAY, 4.30 A.M. 20
CLINCHING AN ARGUMENT 21
SNOWBALLS 22
HEIGH-HO, THE HOLLY! 23
GOING TO COVER 25
HYDE PARK--OUT OF THE SEASON 26
COMING OF AGE OF THE PRIDE OF THE FAMILY 27
*THE END OF ALL THINGS 28
*SKETCH ON A POST CARD 29
FIRST DRAWING IN "PUNCH," 22ND JUNE, 1872 31
*A COOL SEQUESTERED SPOT 32
A TOUR IN THE TOY COUNTRY (_Harz Mountains_) 33
A MOUNTAIN BEER GARDEN 34
A FRAULEIN 35
A MOUNTAIN PATH 35
A WARRIOR OF SEDAN IN A BEER GARDEN AT GOSLAR, 1872 36
THE ARK OF REFUGE 37
*THE DANCE OF WITCHES 38
SPECTRES OF THE BROCKEN 39
A SKETCH AT SUPPER 40
BACK TO THE VIEW 40
THE GUIDE AT GOSLAR 41
PROCESSION OF THE SICK 42
DRINKING THE WATERS AT GOSLAR 43
A GENERAL IN THE PRUSSIAN ARMY 44
*A SCHOOL ON THE MARCH--HARZ MOUNTAINS, 1872 45
SKETCH--HARZ MOUNTAINS, 1872 46
SKETCH--HARZ MOUNTAINS, 1872 48
AT CLAUSTHAL 49
*SKETCH 50
SKETCH IN "PUNCH," 8TH MARCH, 1873 51
A CHECK 53
SKETCH (Published in _Pall Mall Gazette_) 55
LOOKING OUT FOR THE "GRAPHIC" BALLOON 57
OFF TO THE EXHIBITION--VIENNA, 1873 59
*A VIENNESE DOG 60
SKETCH (Published in _Pall Mall Gazette_) 62
*EARLY DECORATIVE DESIGN 64
THIS IS NOT A FIRST-CLASS COW 66
*STUDIES FOR A LARGE DECORATIVE DESIGN, 1874 67
THE POLLING BOOTH (_Pictorial World_) 70
*HOME RULE--MARCH 1874 71
ON THE STUMP 72
THE SCOTCH ELECTIONS--GOING TO THE HUSTINGS 73
PAIRING TIME 74
COURSING 75
HER FIRST VALENTINE 76
A VALENTINE 76
SOMEBODY'S COMING! 77
I WONDER WHO SENT ME THESE FLOWERS 78
THE YOUNG HAMLET 79
HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 1874--ARRIVAL OF NEW MEMBERS 80
THE SPEAKER GOING UP TO THE LORDS 81
AT THE BAR OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS 82
THE NEW PRIME MINISTER 83
THE TICHBORNE TRIAL--BREAKING-UP DAY 84
THE MORNING WALK 86
*DECORATIVE PAINTING FOR A DINING-ROOM 89
*THE COTTAGE, FARNHAM ROYAL 90
*SKETCH FROM THE COTTAGE, FARNHAM ROYAL 91
*BRINGING HOME THE SULTANAS 92
*THE PADDOCK, FARNHAM ROYAL 93
*STUDYING FROM NATURE 95
SKETCH (Published in _Pall Mall Gazette_) 96
SKETCH (Published in _Pall Mall Gazette_) 97
*DRAWING FROM FAMILIAR OBJECTS 98
*COULD NOT DRAW A LADY! 99
HEADPIECE (_Old Christmas_) 100
THE STAGE COACHMAN 103
IN THE STABLE YARD 104
THE TROUBADOUR 106
THE FAIR JULIA 107
MASTER SIMON AND HIS DOGS 109
ON THE ROAD SIDE, BRITTANY 111
*AT GUINGAMP, BRITTANY 113
*TO M. H.--CHRISTMAS, 1874 114
*FACSIMILE OF LETTER 116
*ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 117
*AT FARNHAM ROYAL 118
*SUNRISE 119
*DIAGRAM. STUDY IN LINE 120
*DIAGRAM. STUDY IN LINE 120
*DIAGRAM. DESIGN FOR A PICTURE, 1875 121
*DIAGRAM. A MAD DOG 122
*DIAGRAM. THE LECTURER 123
DIAGRAM. CHILD 124
DIAGRAM. MAD DOG 125
*SKETCH 127
*SHOWS HIS TERRA COTTAS 129
*THE FIRST YEAR OF ACADEMY NOTES 130
*THREE PELICANS AND TORTOISE 131
*INSPECTING EMBROIDERIES 132
*FRESHWATER, ISLE OF WIGHT 132
*A CHRISTMAS CARD TO K. E. B. 133
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS (_Manchester Quarterly_) 134
THERE WERE THREE RAVENS SAT ON A TREE 135
*PRIVATE VIEW OF MY FIRST R.A. PICTURE 136
*A HORSE FAIR IN BRITTANY 137
CAPTAIN BURTON 139
PREFACE 1 _Bracebridge Hall_ 140
PREFACE 2 _Bracebridge Hall_ 140
THE CHIVALRY OF THE HALL PREPARED TO TAKE THE FIELD 141
THE FAIR JULIA AND HER LOVER 143
GENERAL HARBOTTLE AT DINNER 144
AN EXTINGUISHER 145
*AT WHITCHURCH 146
AT BUXTON 147
*A CHRISTMAS CARD 148
GAMING TABLES AT MONTE CARLO (_Graphic_) 151
PRIEST AND PLAYER (_Graphic_) 153
THE PRIEST'S SERVANT (_North Italian Folk_) 155
THE HUSBANDMAN 157
GOSSIP 158
DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE (_National Gallery_) 160
SPANIELS, KING CHARLES'S BREED 160
PORTRAIT OF A LAWYER BY MORONI 161
*WAITING FOR A BOAT 163
*TAILPIECE 164
*CLEOPATRA 165
THE THREE HUNTSMEN (_L'Art_) 167
A BOAR HUNT (_Grosvenor Notes_) 168
THE TRAP (_Breton Folk_) 170
SKETCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES 171
BRETON FARMER AND CATTLE 172
A WAYSIDE CROSS 173
AT THE HORSE FAIR, LE FOLGOET 174
TROTTING OUT HORSES AT CARHAIX 175
CATTLE FAIR AT CARHAIX 176
A TYPICAL BRETON 177
A BRETONNE 178
*SKETCH 179
A CAP OF FINISTERRE 180
RETURNING FROM LABOUR--PONT AVEN, 1878 181
A BRETON 183
*A FAMILY HORSE 184
*SKETCH IN WOBURN PARK 185
*A CARNATION 186
*HOTEL GRAY ET D'ALBION, CANNES 189
*AT MENTONE 190
*SKETCH 191
SKETCH 192
NOT SUCH DISAGREEABLE WEATHER AFTER ALL--SOME PEOPLE
THINK (from _Punch_) 193
*A PIG OF BRITTANY 194
*A BOOKPLATE 195
*SKETCH 196
*SKETCH 197
*FACSIMILE OF LETTER 199
SKETCH 200
SKETCH OF WYBOURNES 201
*A NEW YEAR'S GREETING 203
APPENDIX.
*HEADPIECE. CALDECOTT'S PICTURE BOOKS 212
ÆSOP'S FABLES 214
A SKETCH BOOK 215
BRETON FOLK 216
[Illustration: AIR--"I KNOW A BANK."]
CHAPTER I.
HIS EARLY ART CAREER.
Randolph Caldecott, the son of an accountant in Chester, was born in
that city on the 22nd of March, 1846, and educated at the King's
School, where he became the head boy. He was not studious in the
popular sense of the word, but spent most of his leisure time in
wandering in the country round. Thus, his love of sport and fondness
for rural pursuits, which never forsook him, were evidenced at an early
age. His artistic instincts were also early developed, and many
treasured sketches, models of animals, &c., cut out of wood, were
produced in Chester by the boy Caldecott.
Perhaps the best and most characteristic record of his early life is,
that he and his brother were "two of the best boys in the school;" the
genius that consists in "an infinite faculty for taking pains" having
much to do with his after career of success.
[Illustration: FIRST CLERK--"GOT JONES' LEDGER?"
SECOND DO. (NEWLY MARRIED)--"YES, LOVE!"]
In 1861 Caldecott was sent to a bank at Whitchurch in Shropshire,
where, for six years, he seems to have had considerable leisure and
opportunity for indulging in his favourite pursuits. Here, living at an
old farm-house about two miles from the town, he used to go fishing
and shooting, to the meets of hounds, to markets and cattle fairs,
gathering in a store of knowledge useful to him in after years. The
practical, if half-unconscious, education that he thus obtained in his
"off-time," as he termed it, whilst clerk at the Whitchurch and
Ellesmere Bank, was often referred to afterwards with pleasure. Thus
from the earliest time it will be seen that he lived in an atmosphere
favourable to his after career. But the bank work was never neglected;
from the day he left his school in Chester in 1861 to become a clerk in
Whitchurch, until the spring of 1872 when he left Manchester finally
for London, the record of his office work was that he "did it well."
[Illustration: "COOM, THEN."]
[Illustration: "THREE FRIENDS."]
During the Whitchurch days he had, as we have indicated, unusual
advantages of leisure, and the opportunity of visiting many an old
house and farm, driving sometimes on the business of the bank, in his
favourite vehicle, a country gig, and "very eagerly," writes one of his
fellow clerks and intimate friends, "were those advantages enjoyed. We
who knew him, can well understand how welcome he must have been in many
a cottage, farm, and hall. The handsome lad carried his own
recommendation. With light brown hair falling with a ripple over his
brow, blue-grey eyes shaded by long lashes, sweet and mobile mouth,
tall and well-made, he joined to these physical advantages a gay good
humour and a charming disposition. No wonder that he was a general
favourite."
But soon he was transferred to Manchester, where a very different life
awaited him--a life of more arduous duties--in the "Manchester and
Salford Bank," but with opportunities for knowledge in other
directions, of which he was not slow to avail himself. If in his early
years his father discouraged his artistic leanings, he was now in a
city which above all others encouraged the study of art--"as far as it
was consistent with business." In the Brasenose Club, and at the houses
of hospitable and artistic friends in Manchester, Caldecott had
exceptional opportunities of seeing good work, and obtaining
information on art matters.
[Illustration]
One who knew him well at this time, writing in the _Manchester Courier_
of Feb. 16th, 1886, says:--
"Caldecott used to wander about the bustling, murky streets
of Manchester, sometimes finding himself in queer
out-of-the-way quarters, often coming across an odd
character, curious bits of antiquity and the like. Whenever
the chance came, he made short excursions into the adjacent
country, and long walks which were never purposeless. Then
he joined an artists' club and made innumerable pen and ink
sketches. Whilst in this city so close was his application
to the art that he loved that on several occasions he spent
the whole night in drawing."
For five years, from 1867 to 1872, Caldecott worked steadily at the
desk in Manchester, studying from nature whenever he had the chance in
summer; and at the school of art in the long evenings, sometimes
working long and late at some water colour drawing. Caldecott owed much
to Manchester, as he often said, and he never forgot or undervalued the
good of his early training. The friends he made then he kept always,
and they were amongst his dearest and best.
In Manchester on the 3rd of July, 1868--his first drawings were
published in a serio comic paper called _Will o' the Wisp_; and in
1869, in another paper called _The Sphinx_, he had several pages of
drawings reproduced. He was painting a little at the same time, making
many hunting and other studies; they were chiefly for friends, but one
picture was exhibited at the Manchester Royal Institution in 1869.
[Illustration: "CONSIDER, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY, THE SAD
POSITION IN WHICH MY CLIENT IS PLACED--DESERTED BY HIS WIFE AND LEFT TO
SUPPORT HIMSELF AND TENDER INFANT BY HIS OWN EXERTIONS."]
[Illustration: FULL CRY.]
[Illustration: "IN THE HUNTING FIELD."]
There was no restraining Caldecott now, his artistic bent and his
delightful humour were finding expression in sketches in odd hours and
minutes, on bits of note paper, on old envelopes, and on the blotting
paper before him at his desk, until everybody about him must have been
alive to his talent. He might no doubt have eventually attained a good
position in the bank, for, as one of his friends writes of him very
truly,
"Caldecott's ability was general, not special. It found its
natural and most agreeable outlet in art and humour, but
everybody who knew him, and those who received his letters,
saw that there were perhaps a dozen ways in which he would
have distinguished himself had he been drawn to them."
The unpublished sketches dispersed through this chapter indicate but
slightly the originality and fecundity of Caldecott's genius at this
time.
[Illustration: "THIS IS NOT A CULPRIT GOING TO GAOL--IT IS ONLY A
GENTLEMAN IN LOVE WHO HAPPENS TO BE WALKING BEFORE A POLICEMAN!"]
There was clearly but one course to pursue--to give up commercial
pursuits and go to London--if such sketches as these were to be found
scattered amongst bank papers!
[Illustration: "SOCIETY IN MANCHESTER."]
And so, in May, 1870, Caldecott, as his diary records, went to London
for a few days with a letter of introduction to Mr. Thomas Armstrong
from Mr. W. Slagg; and in the same year, 1870, some of his drawings
were shown to Shirley Brooks, and to Mark Lemon, then editor of
_Punch_. Mr. Clough thus records the event:--
"Bearing an introductory letter he went up to London on a
flying visit, carrying with him a sketch on wood and a small
book of drawings of the 'Fancies of a Wedding.' He was well
received. The sketch was accepted, and with many compliments
the book of drawings was detained.
"'From that day to this,' said Mr. Caldecott, 'I have not
seen either sketch or book.' Some time after, on meeting
Mark Lemon, the incident was recalled, when the burly,
jovial editor replied, 'My dear fellow, I am vagabondising
to-day, not _Punching_.' I don't think Mr. Caldecott rightly
appreciated that joke."
From this date and all through the year 1871, Caldecott was at work in
Manchester and sending to London drawings, some of which have hardly
been exceeded for humour and expression in a few lines.
[Illustration: "A NEW CONTRIBUTOR."]